8:30 P.M. – For the time being, the Big 12 presidents have opted to continue to try and play sports this fall. A revised schedule is in the works.
Ross Dellenger from Sports Illustrated reported that all ten Big 12 Athletic Directors were briefed for 90 minutes by a medical panel, which “led to vigorous debate”.
Decisions from the SEC and ACC have yet to come, but it looks like they’ll try to join the Big 12 in playing this fall.
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3:55 P.M. – The PAC-12 presidents have voted to to postpone all sport competitions until the end of the 2020 calendar year. This not only eliminates all fall sports, but also all non-conference games during the college basketball season.
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8/11, 3:00 P.M. – Bruce Feldman of The Athletic confirmed on Tuesday afternoon that the Big Ten presidents have “voted to postpone the 2020 college football season with hopes of playing in the spring.”
After initial reports Monday that the Big Ten had decided to cancel their season, a conference spokesperson came out and denied that their had been a vote by the university presidents and chancellors to cancel the season. The presidents did meet on Saturday and Sunday, but did not meet on Monday.
Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren said in a statement, “The mental and physical health and welfare of our student-athletes has been at the center of every decision we have made regarding the ability to proceed forward. As time progressed and after hours of discussion with our Big Ten Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases and the Big Ten Sports Medicine Committee, it became abundantly clear that there was too much uncertainty regarding potential medical risks to allow our student-athletes to compete this fall. We know how significant the student-athlete experience can be in shaping the future of the talented young women and men who compete in the Big Ten Conference. Although that knowledge made this a painstaking decision, it did not make it difficult. While I know our decision today will be disappointing in many ways for our thousands of student-athletes and their families, I am heartened and inspired by their resilience, their insightful and discerning thoughts, and their participation through our conversations to this point. Everyone associated with the Big Ten Conference and its member institutions is committed to getting everyone back to competition as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Football is not the only sport affected by the decision, as men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer, and volleyball will also not play in the fall and hope for competition in the spring.
The Big Ten now becomes the first Power 5 conference to cancel the fall season, joining the Mid-Atlantic Conference and Midwestern Conference as the first FBS conferences to cancel fall sports. Old Dominion became the first school from Conference-USA to cancel their fall season even though C-USA has not made a decision for the rest of their teams yet.
The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reported that the presidents from the PAC-12 conference are still meeting and attempting to come to a decision on what to do in the fall, although it seems likely they’ll follow the Big Ten.
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1:00 P.M. – The Big Ten conference has decided against playing a sports season in the fall, with a formal announcement expected to come on Tuesday.
They’re the first Power 5 conference to postpone fall competition until the spring, citing health concerns over COVID-19. Another Power 5 conference, the Pac-12, is apparently set to follow suit.
Twelve of the 14 Big Ten presidents voted to not go forward with a fall season, with Iowa and Nebraska being the only two schools that wanted to play in the fall.
Details on what a potential spring college season would look like are unclear, although that remains as the only path forward for any sort of college sports during the 2020-21 school year.
The Big Ten was one of the first conferences to announce that they would play a conference-only schedule in the fall. Teams have been practicing for a couple of weeks now, although the decision came from the Big Ten leadership on Saturday that players could engage in full-contact activities.
This story will be updated with further details.
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